Martian Analysis

War may or may not start, but the battle against the enemy will be so fierce that no stone will remain unturned.  At least that is the conclusion put forth by Ph.D. Mira Markovic, Director of the Directorship of JUL and wife of the President of FRY, in the political platform of the elections conference of the Jugoslav Left, held in Zemun on March 25.  The key words are “threat”, “enemy”, “battle” and “front”.

Inaugurating, at the highest level, the beginning of operations of the red-black coalition, which had, only the day before, assembled the Government of Serbia strictly from among political scarecrows, Dr. Markovic ventured into the Radical preserve, declaring mobilization.  Against who?  Against those who “in every free, independent and self-respecting country in the world, are treated like the greatest enemies”.  Dr. Markovic’s vocabulary alone is enough to cause one’s blood to curdle, because what is at issue are not only terms which are only still in use among politicians of yesterday, but also verbal preparations for war which are very much like those from 1990/1991.  As the most powerful woman in the country is talking precisely about lessons which ought to have been learned from that war, there is good reason for taking a closer look at her threatening rhetoric.
Thus, according to Prof. Markovic, at the moment, the same mechanisms of separatism, nationalism and chauvinism (it is not stated whose) are active the way they were in the year 1991.  They are not quite the same though — because the proponents of that separatism and nationalism are no longer in Yugoslavia — except for Serbian chauvinists, and they do not appear to be at issue here.  The Yugoslavia to which Dr. Markovic still remains attached, as she herself points out, has been left by Slovenians, Croatians, Bosnian Muslims and Macedonians.  They left it because they no longer wished to continue with her husband.  Slovenia is entering the European Community, Macedonia is defined as “the oasis of peace in the Balkans”, Croatia has friends in the world, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina people are at least hoping for something after everything that happened.  In all likelihood, Dr. Markovic believes that they would all be better off if they had remained in Yugoslavia, which now has not only Slobodan Milosevic and Mira Markovic in power, but also Vosjlav Seselj — but it is unlikely that anyone among those who left Yugoslavia thinks the same.  Now others are facing dilemmas — to leave or to stay, and it is clear that the resident of Beli Dvor is issuing warnings about Montenegrins and Kosovo’s Albanians.

In her “lessons,” neither the one nor the other issue is addressed, but that wasn’t necessary anyway.  Dr. Markovic stated a long time ago what she thinks about Milo Djukanovic, and it makes no difference for her that, in the meantime, he has been elected President of Montenegro in elections that, at the very least, were no less honest from those in which Milan Milutinovic was chosen President of Serbia.  As far as Kosovo is concerned, Dr. Markovic, who has always stood for national equality (“All who live in Yugoslavia are equal among themselves in every way”), agrees with her husband that no concessions should be made to Albanians because their demands for independence are unacceptable.  The state, according to Dr. Markovic’s model, has no reason to undertake anything, because nearly two million of its citizens are engaged in rebellion — either passive or armed — except to use force, ever greater and greater, come what may.

Still, Dr. Markovic is at the moment more worried — judging by her “lessons” from Zemun — about another kind of “enemy within” (a concept which it seems is no longer used by anyone except her).  It appears that the greatest threat is coming from “allies of outside pressures” (an interesting formulation, looked at logically, grammatically and politically).  Even though they are not defined precisely, probably the “allies of pressures”, who once used to be called the Fifth Estate, are all those in the country who think that unconditional dialogue must be opened in Kosovo, even if that requires international mediation, should we be unable to manage ourselves (and we have proven for at least ten years that we cannot), and that the police should not go unpunished for killing civilians — because that is what the Contact Group, as official representative of outside pressures, also thinks.
Therefore, it is not permitted to think about the present situation in Yugoslavia in the way anyone in the West thinks about it, otherwise one becomes an “ally of outside pressures”.  These allies can be found in many places, but regardless of where they settled down, they have not escaped Dr. Markovic’s watchful eye.  It is clear to her and all others who long ago made worthless the word “patriot” that the main centers of the enemy within are in independent media, but now we discover that they are not in all of them, but only in “a part of so-called independent media” (it would be interesting to know which media Dr. Markovic excluded from allying with pressures).  They have been joined by certain publishing houses (it is likely that this does not refer to the one which is preparing to publish the professors collected works).  Among “allies” there are “certain leaders of political parties on the right”, from which evidently the biggest party on the right, the Serbian Radical Party, must be excluded.  Its leader, Vojslav Seselj, was until recently considered a fascist by Dr. Markovic, but as he is a coalition partner in the Government and, what is more important, has opened the doors to Zemun for the person whom he until recently called “the red witch from Dedinje” — it is likely that she is referring to Vuk Draskovic.  The list continues with “the odd rightist and upstart hiding on the left”.  The public has not been let to know who these traitors are, but as it concerns merely the “odd one”, the directorship of the left will likely deal successfully with the crooks in its own ranks.  Finally, there is an imaginative group of “allies” comprising “corrupt and manipulated intellectuals, experts, public figures, young people” — therefore everyone who might eventually have some influence.

It is not entirely clear why Dr. Markovic is according so much attention to the enumerated “enemies from within”, given that her husband’s party and the Radical Party enjoy majority support (four fifths, as they themselves point out) of the Serbian electorate.  It is most likely that not a single enemy is small or insignificant at a time when the state is threatened, and it is not debatable that the state is threatened and that with each new day it will be more threatened.  Namely, Dr. Markovic states that “closing eyes to these dangers (coming from allies, our comment) and postponing the battle with them can cost dearly not only Yugoslavia, but the lives of everyone of us”, and that “every separatism and nationalism is the greatest evil not only for the community of states, but for social development as a whole and for the life of every individual”.  It is known that if life is threatened, every defense is permissible, so that “we need a literal front in which freedom and independence will be defended”, but also a “civilization front in which peace and prosperity, and a humane and contemporary society will also be defended.”  With this objective “all patriotic forces should unite, every material and spiritual force, all political, social and cultural resources.”

On March 31 an organization which calls itself “The Patriotic Alliance”, which was not known to the public until now, paid for a full page in Politika to publish a photograph of Robert Gelbard, Special American Envoy, and Ibrahim Rugova, Leader of Kosovo’s Albanians, embracing each other with the text: “Rugova in Gelbard’s ‘neutral’ embrace”.  The same evening, the guest of TV Politika was the former President of Montenegro, Momir Bulatovic, who after last year’s election defeat also announced the creation of a patriotic block in that Republic in preparation for parliamentary elections toward the end of May.  The patriotic front is, for the time being, mainly acting against facts, even though it is not outside the realm of possibility that it will take up other forms of action.  For instance, it is a fact that until several years ago, Slobodan Milosevic led Serbia “from Horgos to Dragas”, Montenegro, part of Bosnia and part of Croatia.  Not understanding that the wealth of a state does not consist in grabbing for someone else’s property, but in developing one’s own, he was first left without territory which he held in Croatia, then in Bosnia — contributing like no other leader to all around Serbian misery.  Practically speaking, he no longer has hold over Kosovo, and he wishes to substitute that — if not peacefully, then by force — with return of absolute power in Montenegro, which he has lost.  The ambition of the ruling conjugal couple is limitless, but appears that their power is not unshakable.  Because there is no room for compromise in their method of rule, let alone for defeat, traitors are blamed for every defeat which inevitably happens.  And an inquisitorial climate is created, as it is known that threatened people are the easiest to rule over.

Mira Markovic and Slobodan Milosevic are what they are, and in no profession can anyone give more than they are capable of or can do, or has been given to do.  If at least this Yugoslavia remains intact, it will be in spite of the leader and his wife, and not thanks to them.  Without them, a discussion on freedom, independence, integrity, sovereignty, prosperity and dignity would actually have meaning.  As it is, it is meaningless.